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The desert called so we pulled out the long boats and headed down the Baja way, first loading enough boats to take full advantage of both coasts, then cramming the truck full of every camping comfort it would take, right down to a hand-cranked margarita blender.

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Sean Morley knows a few things about going fast. He honed his forward stroke technique as a flatwater sprint racer on the British junior national team, but has made his biggest mark traveling far and fast in challenging conditions. He’s held speed records for crossing the Irish Sea, circumnavigating Vancouver Island, and paddling 4,500 miles around Great Britain and Ireland, solo.

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The Jondachi is special. Ask any Tena paddler what their favorite run is, where they cut their teeth, where they go with their friends, where they suggest recently arrived foreign kayakers go: the Upper Jondachi. Kayaking is young in Ecuador. Truly, it’s in its infancy. To lose the Jondachi to a dam would be to lose a great teacher.

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“Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks offer some of the best paddling opportunities in the world for all abilities -- to live so near to these amazing rivers and yet be unable to experience them is a constant frustration for me and many other residents and visitors.”

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A month into their ambitious nine-month, 5,200-mile route, the six-man Rediscover North America crew highlights the first 27 days paddling up the Atchafalaya River, and crossing over to begin the long slog up the mighty Mississippi.

Don’t panic. You will still be able to print out the digital charts yourself, and you should. But here’s what is troubling to me: One of the agencies most responsible for ensuring our safety at sea thinks we should depend on electronic aids rather than our own knowledge.

That’s fine in the bridge of a supertanker, with its redundant systems and layers of plate glass separating the navigation computers from the elements. It’s quite another in a kayak.

I’ll confess that I rely on a GPS more than I should. I’ve got a bad habit of tucking the thing under a bungee on my deck and leaving it turned on. I check how fast I’m going, how far I’ve gone, the distance and direction to my next destination.

I still can’t program waypoints worth a damn, but playing with my GPS has taught me one thing for sure–nothing burns through batteries faster than a GPS.

And that brings me back to Duane’s point. If your GPS gets wet, or its batteries go flat, or a Great White eats it for lunch you still need to find your way home. If you don’t have a compass and a nautical chart, and a good working knowledge of how to use them, you have no business being on the water. Period.